Obama for America and the Democratic Party of Hawaii are now sharing space at Abercrombie’s old campaign headquarters — a former steakhouse – so the governor was on familiar ground.

Abercrombie said the Hawaii-born president has sought to reach out to Republicans during his three years in office, without success.

He’s tried so hard to live aloha for these last three years. And, of course, it’s been utterly and totally and completely rejected. And when you see the toxic atmosphere that has been established in this — I don’t even want to call it a race — in this punching match that is taking place in the Republican primaries right now. You can see it’s not going to work.

And I don’t know what the president’s words will be precisely tonight, but I’m guessing that he’s going to say, “I’ve done everything that is possible …the nation is going to have to choose. We’re going to have to decide whether we are all in this together or whether it’s everyone for themselves, whether this is going to be a war of each against all, or whether or not we’re going to unite behind that `diversity defining us’ message.”

I don’t know, it may be the — really — the first election since Harry Truman in 1948 in which the president is going to have to say that “the Congress simply does not want to govern with me.”

Schatz, who was a leader in the Obama campaign in Hawaii in 2008, told Democrats to expect a fight from Republicans, even in traditionally blue Hawaii.

This is the beginning of a very difficult fight, even locally.

And so I want you to stay engaged, I want you to work with Organizing for America, with the Democratic Party of Hawaii, go and work your communities, because we’re in for the fight of our lives, and it is literally defining the future of the state of Hawaii and defining the future of the United States of America.